Wentworth, J. (2003) “The Intelligent Transportation System and the Ethics of Intelligent Computers,” Computers and Society Magazine, 32 (6) (June 2003) .

Abstract: Machines that think are already here. This was demonstrated in May of 1997 when IBM’s Deep Blue defeated Gary Kasparov (grandmaster and world champion chess player) in a well publicized chess match. Sometime between 2020 and 2040 intelligent machines will match or surpass humans in learning, thinking and reasoning, and will have the consciousness and emotions critical to setting or changing their goals. These intelligent machines will most likely also be an integral component of the future ITS. How much free will and level of abstraction (to explore their world and cyberspace and to learn) will these intelligent machines have and who will decide? In scientific fields it often takes a disaster for the practitioners to address fundamental problems, like stress corrosion in suspension bridge eyebar links. Intelligent machines have the potential capacity for artificial evil (to do harm) indicating that the morals and ethics of intelligent machines should be considered prior to their field implementation. What does this all mean for the distant future of ITS?